G4 and G5?
Sorry if I am joining this discussion a bit too late, but didn't the G5 compare favorably with the Pentium IV processor where as the G4 compared to that of the late Pentium III and early Pentium IVs?
Lets take a few examples:
The Highest processor based Power Mac G4 - Mirror Drive Door/FW800 running at dual 1.25 ghz PowerPC G4 7455 with 167mhz bus, and also the Dual 1.42. Both these processors included 2MB L3 Cache per processor, some earlier models only included 1MB L3 Cache - Wasn't this to compensate for the slow FSB of the G4?
Next, the PowerBook G4 Dual-layer 1.67ghz with its 167mhz bus.. the problem here is that the 7447A/B lacked L3 Cache. Its quite ironic that the later Titanium PowerBooks offered L3 Cache.. but would there compensation using the L3 make them much faster than the 2006 1.67 PowerBook G4?
Finally, the Dual Core G5s, and Quad G5. The Quad uses 4 X 2.5Ghz PowerPC G5 970MP(2 Processors and 2 cores), has a FSB of 1.25Ghz with NO L3 Cache. I guess the impressive FSB of 1.25 on the Quad is why L3 never made it on the G5 line. Dual Core 2.3 and 2.0 have 1.0Ghz FSB and no L3 either.
I think the G5 Quad and Dual Core are close to or on par with the latest to LAST Pentium IV machines. I can also include maybe the early Core Duo or Core Solo machines.. maybe lower clock speed Core2Duo machines.
But, really at the end of the day, depending on usage, neither machine is faster than the other. The only way to see which is faster is based on types of software applications. Rendering and video encoding on the G5 is much faster than on the Pentium IV machines - for instance.
Sorry if this is somewhat wordy, just that I wanted to know where the G5 and G4 fall in terms of comparative equivalency to the Pentium III, IV and later Core Duo processors.